A Job Never Done
by Sophia Hawkins
Summary: Oneshot, set before the show's timeline. A brief look at the lives of Jonny and Dr. Quest and their bodyguard, Race Bannon, whose job is never done, and some days are more difficult than others.


A Job Never Done

Being an assigned bodyguard, one thing that was vital was Race Bannon's ability to awaken at the slightest noise. In spite of this, every so often, human nature took over and he could fall into the deadest sleep imaginable. This however was _not_ one of those nights. He heard a sound and shot up in his bed before he was even aware what it was. The room was all but pitch dark, so he knew he hadn't been in bed long. He listened to figure out what the sound was, and realized it sounded like somebody talking, no, more like somebody on the verge of screaming, and he quickly figured out that it was a very young voice, that 8-year-old whose protection was all but solely his assigned job, Jonny Quest.

His room was centered at the upstairs hallway, between Dr. Quest's bedroom, and Jonny's, even so, the sound traveling up the hall had clearly reached the next bedroom too. As Race stepped out into the hall, he heard a doorknob turn and the next door open.

"Race?"

"I'm on it, Doctor," Race sprinted down the hall and came to Jonny's door. It wasn't locked, it was slightly ajar, Race pushed it in and saw there was no threat in the room, only Jonny rolling around in his bed carrying on almost incoherently. Race turned back and gave a sign that it was all clear and the doctor could go on back to bed; he'd handle this.

Race entered the dark room and pushed the door shut behind him and reached for the light switch.

Bzzzzz-CRACK!

Terrific, he looked towards the ceiling where the light bulb just exploded. Oh well, in the dark he made his way over to the boy's bed and listened as Jonny murmured in his sleep. He also flopped and kicked like a fish being dragged out of the water. Whatever he was dreaming, he must've been putting up the fight of his life.

"No! No! Let go of me! Let go! Help! Help! Race! Race!"

There was the magic word. Race put his hands on the boy's shoulders and shook him to wake him up.

"It's alright, kid, I'm right here," he said.

Jonny struggled for a few seconds before he opened his eyes and fell back against the bed. "Race!" He stammered and gibbered for a few seconds before he became aware of his surroundings.

"Oh man, Race, _what_ a nightmare. It was that man again."

Ah. A couple weeks ago while Dr. Quest was on business in Washington, D.C., a couple of hired crooks had ambushed Race and Jonny. Race had been knocked out, only for a moment, but it was long enough for one of the men to take off with Jonny. The boy had struggled as hard as he could but he couldn't get away; and his kidnapper had opted for the crowded sidewalks instead of a getaway car, figuring they would be lost in the crowd in no time and Bannon would never find them. The blow he'd sustained to his head left Race with a concussion and temporary double vision, but he chased the hood down six blocks crowded full of tourists and sightseers before he finally caught up with them, and once he got Jonny away from the man, he tackled the kidnapper to the ground and proceeded to beat the living tar out of him.

When he finally gave up on clobbering the goon and made sure he couldn't get loose, he slowly got up and saw Jonny standing in the middle of the street looking terrified. Up till then, he hadn't really understood _why_ Race was hired to protect them, but it was obvious _now_ the kid got it.

"Race…" he croaked out in a small, terrified voice.

Race went over to the petrified kid and scooped him up in his arms, "It's okay, kid, come on, let's go find your dad."

* * *

><p>Jonny had been shaken up the rest of that day but after that he seemed to be fine, until now.<p>

"It was just a nightmare, Jonny," Race explained, "That goon can't come after you again."

"I know, Race, I know," the young boy replied hesitantly.

Something else was the matter, Race could tell that much.

"What's eating at you, kid?" he asked.

Jonny looked down and wouldn't look up at Race as he said lowly, "I was just wondering something." He looked up, then he stood up on his bed so he could see Race eye to eye and asked him, "Is that the only reason you stay with us, Race, because it's your job? I mean are…would you just move on to guarding somebody else if you didn't have to be here?"

He might've seen this coming. After the attempted kidnapping, Dr. Quest had talked to Jonny about what had happened and further explained Race's role in making sure they were safe. Until then, it hadn't really dawned on Jonny _why_ Race had been with them as far back as he could remember, it never occurred to the boy it was all in the name of a job, and not merely because he was their friend.

"Guard, yes, that _is_ what I was trained for in Intelligence One," he answered, "But to just forget about your and your dad?" He shook his head, "No, Jonny, you don't spend 8 years with a family without them becoming a big part of your life. And the two of you are _still_ going to be until you're grown up and don't need me around anymore. And that's a long way away, it's nothing you need to worry about now."

Jonny slowly nodded his head, but it was obvious he still wasn't going to be going to sleep for a while. And Race was right, he stayed in Jonny's room until the boy finally fell asleep and that wasn't until 4 o' clock in the morning.

* * *

><p>Race knocked on Dr. Quest's lab door a couple days later and called in, "Doctor, may I speak with you for a minute?"<p>

"Certainly, Race," Benton Quest answered as he placed a test tube back in its tray, "What's on your mind?"

"It's about your son, Doctor."

"Is he alright?" Dr. Quest looked to the white haired man.

"All due respect, Doctor, that's what I wanted to talk to you about." Race closed the door behind him, "He's in his room right now, so I don't have to worry about him overhearing."

"What is it, Race?"

"Simply, Doctor, that in the last few days, his schoolwork has gotten terrible, in all the years I've been tutoring him he's never done as poorly as he is now, he can't answer questions, he can't explain the ones he _does_ answer, and he's not paying attention to much of anything," Race explained, "His mind is somewhere else entirely right now."

And by somewhere else, Dr. Quest knew that it wasn't anything good. "What's the matter?"

"Well, a couple nights ago when he had that nightmare, he was thinking back to the man that tried to kidnap him," Race explained, "But I think there's something else too. I think it's just dawned on the kid how isolated he really is out here, once he figured out I wasn't staying with you guys just for the heck of it. I think he started considering if I transferred to another case, how alone he'd really be then."

Dr. Quest sighed discontentedly and responded, "Yes, it's something I've thought about too in the past. Jonny's at a real disadvantage between us always being on the move because of my work, and that my work leaves plenty of room for enemies and makes it hard knowing who to trust, and that because between all my projects, the truth is I don't have as much time for him as I'd like to. And all of that, coupled with all the attempts that have been made on both our lives, I can't imagine what it must be like for someone his age to take in."

"You're the doctor, Doctor," Race said, "But in Intelligence One they drilled us on some basic psychology to figure out how people work: how the criminals work, how the good guys work, even how _we_ work. We used to think kids could experience trauma and it wouldn't affect them because they'd simply forget about it when they got older and grew up, but these days we know better, we know they remember much more as kids than anybody wants them to. But just remembering doesn't mean it'll haunt him. At Jonny's age I don't think he's fully aware of the danger you're constantly in. For the most part, I think to him it's still just one big adventure. As far as psychological health goes, I think he's about as well off as they come, in spite of everything he's already been put through at his age. Instead, his problem is that he's worried about being alone. In which case, the only answer I can think of is that he needs a friend."

"And there's the problem," Benton replied.

"Yep," Race agreed, "But if between the two of us we can't figure out a solution, then _we're_ the ones with a real problem, not the boy."

* * *

><p>Another day, another trip to another part of the country. Dr. Quest had just wrapped up some business in Arizona, and was going to be spending the next five days lecturing at three different universities in New Mexico; they'd started out early to get there on time, early enough that Jonny went right back to sleep as soon as they were on the road.<p>

"So where to first, Doctor?" Race asked shortly after they had reached the state line.

"Actually, Race," the doctor replied, "It occurred to me that if you wouldn't mind driving the extra distance, we could simplify this trip a little by only staying in one hotel for the whole five days and just commuting out and back to the universities day by day."

"That's fine with me, Doctor," Race answered, "I'm sure Jonny won't mind not being bounced around the entire trip out."

"My first lecture's going to be at the military institute in Roswell tomorrow," Dr. Quest told him.

"Roswell, eh?" Race sounded intrigued, "You're sure your work isn't going to upset anybody out there, Doctor?"

"Why do you ask that, Race?"

"Just that with everybody getting so tight lipped about what happened out there almost 20 years ago, a military institute might not be the warmest reception for a scientist whose works go above and beyond simple life on _this_ planet," Race noted.

"I don't think they'll be opposed to my lecturing," Dr. Quest said, "I've been working on something that may be of service to the military for…"

A few seconds before Dr. Quest was cut off, both men saw a car coming up the road towards them driving haphazardly and careening from one side of the road to the other and it made a sharp turn onto their side of the road and looked like it was going to crash into them.

"Look out!"

Race jerked the wheel to the side and they went to the other side of the road just as the car passed them, then went off the road, hit something and rolled over. Race brought the car to an abrupt halt and the sudden jerk forward woke Jonny up and he about fell on the floor of the backseat.

"Hey, what's happening, Dad?" he asked.

"That's a good question, Jonny," he said as they got out, "Was it an ambush?"

Race looked back and saw people crawling out of the overturned car through the windows, "No, it's an accident, come on!"

That excited Jonny and he was right behind his father and Race, who ran over to the other car and saw that so far three people had climbed out of it; a man, a woman, and what looked like their teenage daughter.

"Is everybody alright?" Race asked as they arrived on the scene.

The older woman, whose hair was tussled from the impact but otherwise appeared unscathed, clutched her purse strap in one hand and answered bluntly, "We're fine."

The man, who overall appeared a bit more disheveled and a little banged up, made his way around the overturned car and said, "I hope we didn't hit you. Is everybody alright?"

"We're fine," Race answered.

"Good," the man said, "It was all our own fault," he nodded towards the woman and explained, "My wife was driving."

"Yes," the woman said distantly, and addressed Race and Dr. Quest and explained, "I was about to hit my husband when your car appeared. My sincerest apologies."

Jonny laughed at her remark and covered his mouth with both hands because he knew his father wouldn't approve. But he couldn't help it, so since they weren't paying attention to him, he walked back over to their own car. But he stopped in his tracks and stopped laughing when he caught sight of something running down the embankment leading down from the road. He glanced back at his dad and Race, they had gotten a fourth person out of the car and were helping get the car on its tires again, so Jonny took off down the hill.

"Hey! Wait!" he called as he ran down the rough path.

What he saw, and what he was chasing after, was some kind of animal. It came to a stop at the bottom of the hill, but Jonny didn't and he skidded to a stop and just avoided skidding into a tree. He turned back and saw that it was a small white dog with kind of a bulldog face.

"Hey boy," Jonny said as he inched over towards it, "Come here, boy."

The dog growled and sniffed as if making up his mind, then to Jonny's surprise, it smiled and ran over to him, barking happily it sounded like. Up close, Jonny was able to see that the dog had black coloring around its eyes like a raccoon. He also noted that the dog had no collar.

"Hey boy, you want to come with me?" Jonny asked.

The dog seemed to like that idea. Jonny picked him up and carried the dog back up the hill. Once he got back to the road he saw that Race and his dad had gotten the other car upright again and were still talking to the four people who had been riding in it. Perfect. He closed one hand over the dog's mouth so he couldn't bark and give them away. He crept back over to their car and found one of his suitcases he'd packed for the hotel, and stuffed the dog in it and said to it quietly, "Now you stay in there and don't make any noise, and we should be alright."

"Jonny," he heard his father call, "Where are you?"

Jonny popped up in the backseat of the car and answered, "Right here, Dad."

"Fine, everybody's okay and they can get their car running again, so let's get going," Dr. Quest said to Race as they came over to the car and got in, "I want to get to the hotel as soon as possible."

"You and me both, Dad," Jonny said.

* * *

><p>"Alright, here we are," Race said as he pulled the car up at the curb outside the hotel.<p>

"I'll get us checked in and then let's get our luggage upstairs," Dr. Quest said as he got out of the car.

"Right, Dad," Jonny said, keeping hold of his suitcase. So far so good, they'd made it through the drive without his luggage starting to bark, now if they could just get to their rooms alright.

"Come on, Jonny," Race said as he went around to the back of the car and opened the trunk, "Let's get everything unloaded."

Jonny got out of the backseat and put his suitcase on the ground by his feet and started to help Race get the rest of their baggage out of the trunk. A minute later, Dr. Quest came back out and told them, "Our rooms are on the third floor so let's…"

He suddenly found himself cut off when the three of them heard an animal barking, and a second later they saw, in disbelief, Jonny's suitcase getting up and running off.

"Oh no!" Jonny smacked himself in the forehead.

"What on Earth…?" Dr. Quest started to ask.

"I think I saw this movie once," Race said, "I didn't like it." All the same he took off running after the valise and chased it halfway up the block before he caught it by its handle.

"Alright, let's see what's going on here," he said as he took the grip back to the Quests, and threw open the lid.

The little white dog popped up on his hind legs and barked cheerfully at getting out of the suitcase.

"Alright, Jonny, let's have it," Race said.

"I found him back on the road," Jonny explained, "He doesn't have a collar and…aw gee, Dad, can't I keep him?"

"Jonny…" Dr. Quest started to say.

Race leaned over towards the doctor and said under his breath, "Doctor…remember what we were talking about before?"

Benton considered it for a moment and told Jonny, "If he proves well behaved, then you can keep him, Jonny."

The little boy's eyes lit up, "Oh, _thank you_, Dad."

"What're you going to call him, Jonny?" Race asked, confident that the boy would get his way on this one.

Jonny held the dog up and showed them his funny face, "I'm going to call him Bandit."

Race addressed the dog and said, "Hello, Bandit, welcome aboard. Now get back in that suitcase until we get upstairs."

"You got it, Race," Jonny said as he closed the dog back up in his suitcase.

Everybody grabbed as much of the trunk's contents as they could and headed into the hotel. Jonny lost hold of one of the grips he was carrying and couldn't tell which one, but they all got the answer when his suitcase led the way and walked on ahead of them, much to the utter confusion of the clerk at the front desk, who looked at the three travelers most curiously.

"What's the matter, bub?" Race asked as they walked by, "Haven't you been keeping up on the latest things science is coming up with? You heard of carry-on luggage, well there," he pointed, "Is the new prototype for _walk-on_ luggage."

Jonny and Dr. Quest laughed in response to Race's comment as they headed for the elevator.

* * *

><p>Race checked in on Jonny before he headed to bed himself. In the boy's hotel room, Race could see he was sound asleep in his bed, and not much surprise, there was a snoring lump under the covers beside him. No wonder, right now that dog had just about become Jonny's whole world; the way Race saw it, there was no way the doctor could deny Jonny keeping Bandit. Since he'd found that dog two days ago, there had been a noticeable change in the kid, noticeable to Race anyway. Insofar as he could tell, the boy had been restored to the high spirit he had been before their trip out to Washington.<p>

For the last two days, Jonny had been plain inseparable from that dog, anywhere he went, he took Bandit with him. If they went with Dr. Quest where he was lecturing, they'd wait outside the university and Jonny would pass the hour playing with Bandit and teaching him how to do tricks…only some of which the dog seemed to be successful at. So far it didn't look like there would be any trouble getting the dog back to Palm Key, of course _that_ would depend on how well Bandit traveled on boat or plane, though so far he got around in the car just fine.

It had dawned on Race within the first 24 hours that mutt had been with them, this might indeed be the answer, temporarily anyway, to the problem with Jonny. As far as friends went, they didn't come anymore loyal than a dog, especially one that he'd noticed was so attached to his newfound owner. The only way he could make any sense of it was that simply put, those two were made for each other, and it seemed they both found what they didn't know they were looking for.

After a while, Race nodded off to sleep, but he woke up again sometime during the night when he heard a struggle taking place in the room.

"Dr. Quest," was all he managed to get out as he jumped out of bed, before he felt something heavy hit him over the head and he went down like a ton of bricks.

* * *

><p>Jonny woke up when he heard Bandit barking, a couple seconds later he heard the commotion from his dad's room next door.<p>

"That's Dad, come on, Bandit," Jonny said as he swiped up his dog, "They might need our help."

The dog snarled and growled at the impending threat, Jonny clamped his hand over the dog's mouth to muzzle him as he went to the door and down the hall to the next room. From inside, he could hear voices.

"I don't even know what you want," Dr. Quest said, sounding out of it, "I don't even know who you are."

Jonny knelt down and looked through the keyhole and was able to see his dad and Race flat on the ground with their hands tied behind their backs. He could only see the back of the man who was responsible for it.

"I can tell you that much," Race replied, sounding a bit more pulled together, "Won't make you feel any better though." He looked to the doctor and nodded toward their unwanted guest, "This is Tinzi Jawar, Intelligence One has had a file on him over the years, usually for throwing bombs where they don't belong, like open crowds and public squares. He always managed to escape the authorities though."

"And I will again," the man told them, his voice something Jonny couldn't describe except that it made chills run up his back. "The great Dr. Quest and his invincible bodyguard, brought down by one man, that's going to be legendary. History always remember _my_ kind, not the likes of you."

"Oh yeah?" Race asked in his usual unflappable tone, "I can think of more than a few assassinations where the killed are remembered better than the killers."

Jonny saw a chance to help Race and his dad, and he took it. He grabbed the doorknob, turned it quietly and then swung the door open at full force, hitting Tinzi in the back and stunning him for a second. That second was all Jonny needed to scramble for Race's rifle, and he aimed it at the man.

"Jonny, get out of here," Dr. Quest told him.

But the boy was adamant. As Jawar turned around, he saw the gun aimed at him, and looked at the child holding it in disbelief.

"One step out of you, and I blast!" the 8 year old threatened.

Race would've preferred Jonny not be there, but the distraction was necessary for him to work at undoing his ropes without the anarchist seeing him do it. He just hoped the kid could bluff the crazy man long enough for Race to actually get loose, from there _he'd_ be able to deal with the man.

But luck did not seem to be on their side. Tinzi chanced his luck, took that 'one step' and in one swift move, he grabbed the barrel of the rifle and put his weight into it and swung it with such force that Jonny was lifted off the ground in the momentum and sent flying across the room and crashing into the wall and the dresser.

"Jonny!"

"I'm okay, Dad," Jonny said as he felt his head.

He opened his eyes and saw the rifle had been discarded on the floor out of all of their reaches, instead the man was holding a gun with a silencer attached to it and had it aimed at them.

"Say goodnight, Dr. Quest," Jawar said as he adjusted the aim so he would be the first one shot, "Parting is indeed sweet sorrow."

Instead of the next sound they heard being a gunshot, instead it was a scream. Bandit had come in the door, jumped up and bit Tinzi on the arm, causing him to draw back and his aim suddenly went to the ceiling as he pulled the trigger, then he lost his grip on the gun.

Race was loose and on Jawar in a flash, he tackled the man to the floor and quickly subdued him with a sleeper hold.

"Are you alright, Dad?" Jonny asked as he ran over to his father and untied the ropes binding his wrists together.

"I'm fine," Dr. Quest answered, "Are _you_ alright, Jonny?"

"Sure, never better," the kid replied.

"Good job, Bandit," Race said as he finished tying up their visitor, "We were lucky to have you along on this trip after all. Now, the authorities are finally going to be able to haul this guy in and lock him up where he belongs."

"Yes, I suppose we _were_ lucky," Dr. Quest added as he got up, "The one thing a skilled criminal like Jawar couldn't anticipate, a dog."

Jonny looked up at his father eagerly, "Does that mean I can keep him, Dad?"

"I don't see why not," Benton replied, "I can hardly say no after he saved our lives."

"Yippie!" Jonny picked up the dog and said to him, "Do you hear that, Bandit? You're coming home with us!"

Race said under his breath to the doctor, "You made the right decision, Doctor."

"I think so too, Race, I think so."

"The way I see it," Race explained, "Everybody's life just got a little easier. Now, Jonny's got a new friend, he's not going to be so worried now about being alone, and Bandit might not be much of a guard dog but I'll just bet he could prove useful in the future when trouble strikes again."

"You could be right, Race," Dr. Quest replied, "Either way though, it looks like we've just had an addition made to this family."

Bandit got in on the conversation by loudly barking at them.

"He's already learned a new trick," Race noted, "Eavesdropping."

Everybody had a good laugh at that thought.


End file.
